The Danish Energy Agency (DEA) has approved the plan for Thor offshore wind farm.
The DEA has also published the site boundaries at the dedicated site west of Thorsminde, Denmark, narrowing down the site for the wind farm from 440 km2 to 286 km2 as a result of the site-investigations.
The decision of approving the zone is based on an SEA of the project and a public consultation.
As part of the process, in the Spring of 2020 the public was involved in determining the content and level of detail of the environmental assessment.
Results from this consultation are also included in the overall assessment.
The decision can be appealed to the Energy Board of Appeal for a four-week period up to 28 June 2021.
The statement summarizing how environmental considerations have been integrated constitutes the first step in the environmental approval of Thor Offshore Wind Farm and sets, at the strategic level, the framework for the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the specific project at sea.
The EIA with public consultations must be carried out by the future concession owner, and will, together with the associated license for construction, constitute the final step in the overall environmental approval of Thor.
The result of the SEA process as well as the site-investigation and other considerations have led to the narrowing down of the site for Thor.
The process of narrowing down the site has taken into account a number of factors, including visual impact, cumulative visual aspects, birds, stone reefs, raw materials, fishing interest and safety of navigation.
In parallel with the environmental assessment of the Plan for Thor with the Environmental Protection Agency as Authority, an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the specific onshore facility has been carried out, which is now in public consultation until 21 June 2021.
This process is expected to lead to an EIA-permit for the landbased project to be issued by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency in August 2021.